Hungarian embroidery

The Reader has a trumpet exam coming up and last week had a rehearsal with her accompanist whom we had not previously met. My husband took her to the rehearsal while I did some work.

They came home and said, “You should have gone!” The accompanist is Hungarian and apparently had embroidery all over the walls of the room where they had the rehearsal.

The Reader had another rehearsal today, and so this time I took her. Oh, the embroidery!

The lady was only too pleased to get me a whitework cushion for me to study while they rehearsed. It was beautiful!

It was Transylvanian, in white thread on unbleached homewoven linen. It was nearly all stitched in square chain stitch as you would expect of that style embroidery. The most unusual aspect of the embroidery was the large heart motif worked in detached buttonhole stitch.

I commented that I didn’t realise that stitch was part of that style. My host said that actually it was not at all typical. In fact, it was extremely unusual. However, the embroidery was authentic, but just a bit different than the regular traditional examples.

Once the rehearsal had finished she took me upstairs to another room where they had some other embroideries on the walls. Her grandmother was the first costume designer for the Hungarian opera so she has some lovely textiles that have been in the family for a long time.

She showed me two cross stitch pieces. I explained to her that they weren’t just everyday cross stitch, but were done in long-legged (or long-armed) cross stitch. I have seen this style of cross stitch worked in folk embroideries before.

It was so lovely to enjoy the embroideries she had on display, and I think she and her husband were pleased to have a guest who appreciated them so thoroughly! Thank you to my host for your generosity in sharing your precious embroideries with me!